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Monday, December 10, 2012

The FBI has released its 2011 Hate Crime report, and sadly racial bias still accounts for the bulk of hate crimes perpetrated against individuals.

Of 6,216 'single-bias hate crime incidents' that were reported in 2011 (which includes property), 46.9% were racially motivated, followed by 20.8% for sexual orientation, 19.8 % for religious bias, 11.6% for national origin or ethnicity bias, and lastly .09% for disability bias.

From the FBI's press release:

Hate Crime Statistics, 2011 includes the following information:

There were 6,216 single-bias incidents, of which 46.9 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 20.8 percent were motivated by a sexual orientation bias, 19.8 percent were motivated by a religious bias, and 11.6 percent were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against a disability accounted for 0.9 percent of single-bias incidents.

Of the 4,623 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2011, intimidation accounted for 45.6 percent, simple assaults for 34.5 percent, and aggravated assaults for 19.4 percent. Four murders and seven forcible rapes were reported as hate crimes.

There were 2,611 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property. The majority of these (81.4 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 18.6 percent of crimes against property.

Fifty-nine percent of the 5,731 known offenders were white; 20.9 percent were black. The race was unknown for 10.8 percent, and other races accounted for the remaining known offenders.

Most hate crime incidents (32.0 percent) occurred in or near homes. Eighteen percent took place on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 9.3 percent happened at schools or colleges; 5.9 percent in parking lots or garages; and 4.4 percent in churches, synagogues, or temples. The location was considered other (undesignated) or unknown for 11.3 percent of hate crime incidents. The remaining 19.1 percent of hate crime incidents took place at other specified or multiple locations.

As for the victims of religious bias, interesting to note that for all the cries of 'Islamophobia', hate crimes against Muslims account for only 12.5 % of all crimes. Anti-Jewish bias still trumps all other religious bias crimes with a whopping 63.2%, followed (surprisingly) by 5.7% anti-Catholic crimes, with smaller percentages for other religious groups, including atheists and agnostics.

It's sad that we still live in a country where crimes against people that are perceived to be 'different' continues to occur. We're better than that.